How to promote paid courses through live streaming at zero cost?

Live streaming is like setting up a plan, and its effectiveness is related to all the links and details designed in advance by the planner. So how can we do a “profitable” live broadcast with zero cost?

Friends who have worked in online education know that live streaming is a battleground. Sometimes, planning a good live broadcast may achieve the KPI for the month. In fact, live streaming is like "setting up a game". The effectiveness of the game depends on whether the planner can fully understand the user's psychology and design each link and detail in advance.

Not long ago, I was responsible for planning a live class to promote paid knowledge courses. It had no cost but was very effective. Here are some data:

• The number of paid courses on the day of the live broadcast was 8 times higher than usual;
• The paid conversion rate of live broadcast is 10 times that of normal live broadcast.

Therefore, regarding live broadcast, we must first clarify the following two points:

Next, let me show you how I do this money-making “live broadcast”.

1. Understand the essence of live streaming

First of all, we need to figure out what the essence of live streaming is and how it is different from other methods? This can guide us to plan live classes effectively.

The following figure compares live streaming with other promotion methods:

In addition to live broadcast promotion, other commonly used promotion methods include: public account article promotion, picture and text promotion in Moments and communities , etc. In contrast, during live broadcasts, users’ senses are more comprehensive (listening + watching), their communication methods are more flexible, and they can interact with guests.

Therefore, the following conclusions are drawn:

As for the " push feeling", it can be broken down as follows:

You can remember these 3 steps first, I will explain them in detail later.

2. Two principles for selecting live broadcast topics

The selection of live broadcast topics is very important. A good topic can attract more users to participate and reduce the difficulty of promotion. There are two principles for determining the topic: demand + attractiveness.

When I planned the theme of this live class, it was completely "user-oriented". What I want to promote is an artificial intelligence course. Based on the course content, I gave 5 topics for paying users to vote. Finally, I selected the topic with the highest vote rate - the necessary mathematical foundation for getting started with machine learning.

In addition, based on previous user research, we found that the reason for the low completion rate of this course is that many users are stuck at the basics of mathematics. Therefore, this topic can not only attract users who are interested in artificial intelligence to listen to the live broadcast, but also answer questions for old users, which is killing two birds with one stone.

3. Add fission gameplay

In order to maximize the number of new users , I also designed a fission gameplay in this live broadcast. There are many articles sharing how to play fission, so I won’t go into details here, but there are three key points you should pay attention to.

1. Poster Design

The poster design must be eye-catching.

2. Fission Mechanism

What is meant here is what attracts the user and makes him/her willing to forward the poster to his/her circle of friends. Personally, I don’t like the kind of messages that require you to forward in order to get the link to the class (I feel like this will offend a lot of people, please be gentle). First, it will cause some users to leave ; second, it will appear a little insincere.

Therefore, in this live broadcast, as long as users scan the code , they can immediately obtain the live class address, but forwarding the poster can obtain "4G materials of previous open classes." As it turns out, this method also attracted many people to forward it.

3. Path settings

The QR code on the poster can be set to three paths: the assistant’s personal account, the official account, or the robot community.

In comparison, if you are not short of money, I still recommend that you use the robot community method, which saves time and effort, and allows you to communicate with users in the community without obstacles.

4. Set up discounts in 3 dimensions

According to my previous experience, when setting up discounts, it is best to include the following three dimensions:

Only multi-dimensional discounts can make users feel that the product is of great value at first glance, thus generating the urge to buy.

Correspondingly, for the live broadcast that night, I set up the following discounts:

1. Discount: Affordable price, you can get 15 yuan off when you buy the course;
2. Gifts: A lucky draw for books. All users who purchased the books that night can participate and have a chance to win a book worth 79 yuan.
3. Limited time: 20:30-24:00 that evening (live broadcast starts at 20:30).

5. Promotion

Anyone who has studied consumer psychology a little bit will know that no matter what they buy, users will follow the process of "awareness - interest - purchase" when making purchasing decisions. We should think of the users who listen to the live broadcast as newbies who know nothing about the course, and what we need to do is to make them quickly learn about the course and generate interest.

To achieve this goal, I did the following:

1. Host promotion : The host will orally introduce the live broadcast discounts and purchase methods before the live broadcast and Q&A session.
2. Guest promotion : Guests promote courses and benefits during live broadcasts.
3. Live broadcast introduction area promotion : Add graphic and text introductions of courses and discounts in this section.
4. Audience discussion area promotion : The assistant will promote the live broadcast discount every 10 minutes in the live broadcast audience discussion area.
5. Q&A promotion : In the Q&A session, use pseudonyms to ask questions related to the course, and when the guests answer, they will also promote the column.

Judging from the final purchase data, the most purchases were made during verbal promotion by the host and guests at the beginning of the live broadcast, so these two factors are very critical, which is also the biggest advantage of live broadcast compared to other promotion methods.

6. Simplify the purchasing process

Once we have completed the previous step and successfully aroused the user's interest, we now need to simplify the purchase process, preferably allowing users to complete it in one step.

But at the time, I was faced with a complicated situation:

• The course is almost over, so it is not appropriate to directly reduce the price in the App;
• The product currently does not support discount codes that can be used multiple times.

In response to this situation, I first classified the users into three categories:

1. New registered users of the product;
2. Old users of the product, but have not purchased the column;
3. Column paying user.

Correspondingly, I set up different purchasing methods:

(1) New registered users of the product - receive a 30 yuan coupon

How to buy: Add a purchase button on the live broadcast page. Users can click the button and directly use the 30 yuan coupon to purchase.

(2) Old product users, but have not purchased the column

How to buy: Launch the course in the in-product mall section and put it first. Set the price to a discount and users can buy it directly.

(3) Column paying users

Don't consider buying it.

In this way, all users can be covered without duplication or omission, and the optimal purchasing path can be set for them from the user's perspective.

7. Assistant Friends Circle & Community Promotion

Finally, the role of WeChat assistant is also crucial. Before, during and after the live broadcast, the assistant should promote the content in a rhythmic manner in the circle of friends and social groups.

In order to make the copy clear, a picture is placed for each stage. You can see that the copy focuses on different stages:

• Before the live broadcast: put up posters and welfare pictures to attract user attention. The entrance is a QR code, and users can scan the code to obtain the address/participate in fission.
• Live broadcast: The entrance is directly the live broadcast address, and interested users can click to listen to the class.
• After the live broadcast: emphasize the discount period, the entrance is the purchase link, and interested users can click to purchase.

Judging from the final purchase data, there were still many users purchasing after the live broadcast until after 23:50 in the evening. Therefore, rhythmic promotion by assistants in WeChat Moments and communities is essential.

Finally, let me emphasize again: live streaming is actually “setting up a game”. As long as you stand in the user's shoes and take all aspects into consideration, "making money" will be a natural thing.

The author of this article @静静 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games